I was thinking the same, and having talked to friends and relatives who have been diagnosed with sleep apnea and use a CPAP, they all say that choking on his own blood would not really be possible. Now, I do realize that anything is possible, and I’m thinking he might have had some settings wrong, that could have resulted in water in his nose or a nosebleed during the night, that could have resulted in that draining down his throat.
My husband is not too good and communicating exactly what happened in this regard, and admits it was a while ago. After some of the responses I got here, I asked him again what kind of equipment and mask he had, and he said it was pretty high quality, expensive stuff, but he did also say that he had a mask that was kind of like that of a pilot flight mask. I then told him about what some of you folks mentioned about there being many different kinds of masks now, and did a search for images, and I think he’s a little more settled about it now. I also assured him, that I would not allow him to get substandard care for this treatment, if needed, and would stay up for the first few nights to watch and listen for any problems. I really care and love my husband, and since we’ve been together, he’s put almost all medical decisions into my hands. (guess that speaks highly of how much he trusts me to make good choices for him.)
This whole ordeal has motivated him to finally get on a healthy eating routine and start exercising, in order to lose the “beer belly” he’s acquired over the last 10 or so years, which makes me happy that I will have a workout buddy now! He wants to lose the weight, and hopefully be able to stop CPAP treatment, if he’s found to need it.
Again, I want to thank all of you who’ve taken the time to read my post, respond to it and share your experiences. Believe it or not, it has helped to calm some fears my husband has had, with regard to doing another sleep study, and possible CPAP treatment.
I appreciate this information, however, BNSF will not accept this as a substitute, and they are covering the full cost of the sleep study, so the only out of pocket costs we’ll incur for this, is if my husband is found to need CPAP treatment for sleep apnea, or what ever other treatment may be needed, for any other problems that might be found as a result of the study. This is actually a bit different than what they normally do, since I’ve heard 95% of the time, when BNSF requests these additional medical evaluations, the job candidate has to cover the costs associated with testing. However, the need for people to fill the job he’ll be taking is so great, that the start date is rolling and they are paying for these additional tests for this job, since they need folks for the area he’ll be working in.
The only reason these additional tests are being requested, is that my husband’s BMI is over 35, which even if he lost some weight (75%+ of his excess weight and fat is in his “beer belly”), he would still clock in with a BMI over 35, since he’s a pretty stocky guy, and he’s built like a NFL line backer. Thankfully, he’s pretty healthy and has had no major medical problems in his life, with the exception of having to have his Right ACL replaced with a cadaver part in 2008, and that was a freak accident thing in the first place.
We also learned that this study is going to be able to be done in our own home, which should help for my husband in getting a more accurate test, since he’ll be able to sleep in the comfort of our own bed, and since he really cannot sleep without me there, nor will he sleep well, if I am not in bed beside him. They are going to be FedEx’ing the equipment to our home, so he won’t even have to have anyone come into our home to hook him up. I’ve never heard of a sleep study being done this way, not even having a technician come to the home to hook up the machines and wires. So, hopefully this will all go over smoothly, since this is the last hurdle he has in getting a firm offer and start date.
My husband eased his way into the CPAP - the first night it was on maybe twenty minutes before “this sucks” - the next night he managed to wear it for longer (and fall asleep wearing it), but it was more than two months before he would wear it every night all night - and he crossed into “I feel better with it on than off.” For a while he’d wear it one night, then not wear it the next. And during that time he tried probably four masks.
Have your husband talk to his doctor about sleep aids - mine took both melatonin and valerian while getting used to the CPAP to help him fall asleep.
And even if it did, somehow, it wouldn’t have caused that much irritation that fast!
I can imagine that if the humidifier setting was too low, passages would dry out and maybe crack and bleed a little, but not enough to “choke on his own blood”.
The in-home studies sound like a terrific idea. They aren’t as complete as the full-on in-clinic sort, but it’s a LOT easier to sleep at home. If they order another one for me at some point I’ll do my best to insist on it.
Typo Knig had one a few months back: he’d been using a CPAP for several years but had lost a lot of weight, he did one at the clinic that showed no apnea, but he slept so badly that night that they thought it might be a false negative. At one point during the night, the headgear got dislodged or something and the thing has a voice that tells you to move it - it work me but not him!
If it comes back as showing him with apnea, I assume they’d put him on an auto-titrating machine to figure out his setting; he can also insist on a mask-fitting session to find the mask that is right for him. My FIL just had a study (the man is 78, has been roughly spherical his entire life, and the airports were calling HIM to complain about the noise), and supposedly he had some kind of mask fitting where one didn’t work, another was hideously uncomfortable. Unfortunately he’s not sharing any details, and right now we can’t push him to follow through because his wife is in the hospital.
Correct. I know his BMI would drop with any amount of weight loss, it’s just my husband is a very muscular guy naturally, and he’s very broad set. He currently weighs in at 340 lbs at 5’10’', which gives him a BMI of roughly 49. His lowest adult weight, when he was in superb shape and regularly lifting weights for body building, was around 240 lbs, and he had no “beer belly” at that point, and this still puts his BMI at 34.43, just shy of 35. Aside from my husband having put on his “beer belly” in the last few years, he’s really in excellent health. The worst thing he’s had was the knee surgery I mentioned in a previous post, and he got pneumonia once living out here in Virginia. Other than that, the man doesn’t even get colds!
I really, really HATE the whole BMI thing, since it really does not give any kind of accurate picture of someone’s health, and does not account for muscle mass. The person who created the formula for BMI, never even intended for it to be used the way it is today, and it’s original purpose was to relate information about certain population subsets.
